


Dream of the Water Fayth

by Fai_Gensou



Category: Final Fantasy X
Genre: F/M, fayth!Tidus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-05 03:44:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14608569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fai_Gensou/pseuds/Fai_Gensou
Summary: This is my story, and my last chance to tell it...Just how much of Spira's past has been lost?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> May reference M'jai's Spira series. Because it is just that spiffy and wonderful and canon-like. And I'll be sticking more to the Japanese version, because I like some of the dialogue in that better than the English one.

This whole time, as she fell more and more in love with him during the pilgrimage, she thought that she would be the one leaving. It was after Yunalesca's defeat, when they devised the plan to defeat Sin without the Final Aeon, she began to hope. Hope for a life together with him. She still clung to that hope even as he revealed he would disappear after defeating Yu Yevon, hoping that he was wrong somehow. That hope grew as every moment that he stayed beyond Yu Yevon's defeat passed, as she sent her aeons.

That hope died as she saw his hands waver and ripple like water, fading out enough to show his chest through them.

"I have to go." He said, apologetic. "I'm sorry I couldn't show you Zanarkand." He turned back to their friends, avoiding her eyes. "See ya." Walking to the end of the airship, away from her.

She couldn't let him go like that. She ran to him, hoping that maybe, maybe if she held him tight enough, he would stay.

But she passed right through him, something neither of them expected, her momentum tripping her after she passed through, landing on the airship's deck.

Eyes watched unseeing as a pyrefly rise out of the ship, floating up. Tears didn't come. They might later, but now all she felt was emptiness. Spira was finally free, so why did it still feel like losing?

She rose to her feet, and she said "Thank you." What else could she say that wouldn't make it harder on both of them then it already was?

She heard him come up behind her, and closed her eyes as he put his arms around her shoulders in a mimic of a hold. She could still feel his warmth as he did, and she shivered slightly as he passed through her, walking to the end of the airship before taking a running leap off of it.

Selfishly, she was glad she didn't have to watch him fade away before her eyes, like an illusion…or a dream.

The speech to the people at the stadium in Luca came right on the heels of Sin's defeat, and while potions and magic could heal physical injuries, they couldn't deal with the exhaustion, or the sense of loss. Auron's absence was easier to accept. He had accomplished what he had set out to do, and he had no more reason to stay among the living.

Tidus's absence, on the other hand, was much harder to accept. He clearly had not been an Unsent like Auron was revealed to be, which begged the question of what he was. Yuna remembered Bahamut's fayth saying that when they woke up, their dream would end. Did that make Tidus a dream, or some form of Aeon that the Fayth sent to Spira? And what of Jecht? If he was the same as Tidus, how could he have become the Final Aeon and then Sin?

Yuna was struck with the terrible sense that she had killed Tidus in a way when she sent the Fayth after Yu Yevon's defeat. But he hadn't stopped her, hadn't stopped them from defeating Sin for good, not like how he had searched for a way to keep her from dying, to find a way to defeat Sin without the Final Aeon. As much as it hurt, it was clear he had accepted this, and his resolve reminded Yuna of hers, when she reached Zanarkand, ready to place Spira before her own life.

No one on the airship was terribly surprised when, upon returning after giving her speech, Yuna retreated to Tidus's cabin, with a request to be left alone.

Yuna leaned against the door of Tidus's cabin after locking it, surveying the room. It was as messy as the previous times she had seen it. It really felt like he should come walking back any moment now, to swing her in his arms before they celebrated Sin's defeat in a more private way.

But he _wouldn't._ And never would.

Yuna stepped farther into the room, picking up the nightshirt that lay where he had thrown it, bringing it to her face. It still smelled like him. How long before his scent faded away like the rest of him?

Gathering up the shorts he had slept in as well, she laid them on the bed before turning to her obijime and obidome as she began undressing, folding each article of clothing neatly before slipping on Tidus's nightclothes. They were large on her, but she felt closer to him. Sitting down on the bed, she slide her arm under the pillow, as she tended to down when she laid down to sleep, and felt her fingers touch something.

Grabbing it and pulling it out, Yuna looked it over. It was a sphere. Wondering why Tidus would leave a sphere under his pillow, she pressed play.

Tidus's face appeared in view. _"Yuna…well I hope its Yuna. If you're not Yuna, turn this off and give it to her! She has first dibs on this!"_ Yuna giggled a little.

_"Yuna…given that you're watching this, then Sin is gone for good…and so am I. After the war with Bevelle, Yu Yevon gathered the survivors from his side, and turned them into the massive Fayth we saw on Mt. Gagazet, using them to summon a dream. A dream of Zanarkand in its prime, untouched by the war, preserved forever through the minds and power of the Fayth, all the Fayth. And he formed an armor to protect himself while summoning, so the dream would never die. The armor was Sin, existing forever as Yu Yevon possessed every Aeon that broke through that armor."_

He looked away for a moment, before turning back.

_"It would be easy to say that I came from this dream and leave it at that, but…you deserve the truth. I am not just a dream crafted by the Fayth. I…I am a Fayth."_

Yuna stared at his unmoving face after that declaration before she realized she had hit the pause button of the sphere without realizing it. Tidus, a Fayth? Was it possible? Possible that there was a Fayth hidden away where no one could ever find it that had passed from memory? Biting her lip, she hit the play button.

_"I was born over a thousand years ago, and was seventeen when Zanarkand was destroyed. I had been injured, but was not in any immediate danger of dying, when Yunalesca came upon me. I tried asking for help, for healing, since as the daughter of the powerful summoner in Spira, she would have skilled in white magic, but I only managed the please. And she took that please as permission and turned me into a Fayth. My Aeon took the form of Leviathan, an ancient water deity and guardian of the original Al Bhed home island, Wutai. Needless to say, as the divisions between Yevon and the Al Bhed grew, it was decided that there could not be an Aeon in the form of a heretic god. So Yevon destroyed the temple my statue resided in, populating it with fiends and eventually banishing Omega there after ensuring my statue was buried, banning it from record that me and my Aeon ever existed._

_"It was then that I first entered the dream Yu Yevon had created, passing the centuries. Until I decided to…relive my life, actually relive it, not just… play back the memories like a sphere recording. I recreated my body as it would have been as in my earliest memory, and entered into it. Without realizing it, I went from being a dreamer to part of the dream. Meaning that when Auron pulled me into Spira, my body here was supported not by my statue, but by all the Fayth in Spira. Since all the Fayth in Spira are interconnected, when one Fayth is sent, all of them are sent, something that would take a summoner on Yu Yevon's level to do. (Her, on the same level as Yu Yevon?) Though without Yu Yevon binding them together, it might be easier to do._

_"I could never tell anything of this to you before. Yunalesca-or maybe Yevon, I'm not entirely sure-bound all the Fayth in a spell of silence, to keep all of us from speaking of the truth behind Sin, or revealing ourselves as Fayth if we choose to manifest in solid bodies and mingle among the population, as Fayth could do before Yevon placed the sutras inside each Chamber of the Fayth to bind their power. I'm guessing this spell broke with her death, but how could I explain any of this to you? Hell, the only way I can do this sphere is by pretending that I'm talking out a story._

_"I can't stay in Spira once the Fayth are sent, since the connection to my statue has been stretched to near breaking, and this body is powered by all the Fayth. But even if I could stay…I've been stuck in this limbo between life and death for a thousand years now. I can't you give children, I won't grow old with you, and when you died, I wouldn't be able to join you on the Farplane, not as long as my soul is anchored in the living world. I figure it would be easier to wait for you to join me on the Farplane, then to have a life with you only to lose you. Not that I want to join me too soon! I don't want to see you until you've had grandkids!_

_"They say that true love is wanting the person you love to be happy, even without you. I hope that I'm man enough to be able to do that once I'm gone, but… Be happy, Yuna, even though I won't be there._

_"In the nightstand there's book. It's my journal. I wrote out everything, my life back before the war, when I was a Fayth, everything. The whole truth. I want you to read it. Yevon has buried the past from people for too long, and it's only by learning of the past that people learn from it._

_"I love you, Yuna…and I'll be waiting for you."_

Yuna had found her tears during the last part of the sphere. She held it to her chest, one of the last connections she had to Tidus, and cried. Wiping her tears away, she set the sphere down on the nightstand and was about to open the drawer when there was a knock on the door. "Yuna-chan? I brought you food."

Standing you, Yuna, walked over to the door, opening it to reveal Rikku, holding a plate of sandwiches and a glass of juice. Rikku raised an eyebrow at Yuna's clothes, but thankfully didn't comment as Yuna took the plate and glass from her. "You alright?"

Yuna paused. "I…I'm not sure. He…he left me a sphere, and his journal to read, so that I can learn everything."

Rikku nodded in understanding. "I guess I'll leave you to that then. You will tell us about it once you're done, right?"

"I will."

"'Kay, Rin's grabbed a bunch of people to help him with a tapestry that he saved from Home. It's supposed to be from the island the Al Bhed used to live on, so everyone's practically tiptoeing around it."

This got Yuna's attention. "Do you know what's on it?"

"Well I haven't seen it myself, but I think Pops said it has the Al Bhed god on it, Leviathan."

Yuna thanked Rikku for the food and closed the door. Leviathan was real then. As much as she trusted and believed Tidus, others would require proof of some sort. Placing the plate and glass on the nightstand with the sphere, she opened the drawer.

A thick notebook was the only thing inside, with Tidus's name scrawled on the cover. As messy as his handwriting was, it almost seemed to be a form of art, and she knew he could write neatly when called for.

Sitting back on the bed, Yuna propped the pillow on the headboard and pulled the blankets over her lower legs. Flipping it open, she began to read.

_"This is my last chance...to tell my story..."_


	2. Chapter 2

_This is my last chance...to tell my story..._

_But where to start? What defines the beginning of a story, especially mine?_

_Given how they have been an integral part of Spira for thousands of years, I suppose the best place to start would be with the Fayth._

_The legends say that the first Fayth were created when powerful mages summoned the gods and bound them to stone with human sacrifice._ Yuna had to stop at that line. _Gods?_ Yevon had always preached that the Fayth were people who willing gave their souls to create aeons and fight Sin. Then again, given how much Yevon had concealed the truth, should she really be startled with this revelation?

Still…

Yuna remembered a recurring dream she had had ever since she was a child. A bird surrounded by fire, consumed by it only to be born anew. A dream of Phoenix, a being that created the world in the ancient tales of creation that even Yevon could not suppress. Maybe…

Yuna shook her head to clear her thoughts. Tidus had written this to reveal the truth, so certainly there would be answers. She turned back to the page.

_Three gods were bound in this fashion-Ifrit, Shiva, and Bahamut-before the other gods realized what mankind was doing. When the mages tried to bind a fourth god, Ramuh, he killed them all, and created an eternal storm over the area where they had attempted the binding, so mankind would always remember that the gods are not meant to be at the beck and call of mortals, and that the powers of the gods are far beyond their understanding._

_For the gods that had been bound, there was no way to free them. None of the mages would give up their prize. The souls of the humans who were sacrificed in the binding, willing chosen as the legend goes, had merged with that of the gods', and so the bound gods only had two ways with which to interact upon the world. In the form of the human that bound them, formed of pyreflies and capable of limited magic, or by gifting a portion of their power to those they found worthy, allowing for the summoning of a dream in the form of what they had once been, but still far limited compared to the power they once were capable of._

_After the slaughter of the mages by Ramuh, no one ever attempted to bind any other god again. However, some enterprising person modified the spell used-or created a new one, the stories aren't clear-so that a person's soul, transferred from their body to stone, could also create dreams of power, which people had started to call 'Aeons'._

_The biggest change that arose from the creation of the Fayth was in regards to the mages themselves. They and their families gained great wealth and prestige, as people felt it fitting to respect those who could bind the gods to the will of mortals and their families. Even Ramuh's wraith did not change this, especially as the families would take it upon themselves to hunt down fiends that plagued the towns and roads, and performed sendings so the dead would not create more fiends. The families of the mages became the ancestors of the great summoning clans, who became the ruling class of Spira. Every major town or island had one, but what would become Zanarkand had the most, as it was created when eight cities, whose names have long been forgotten, merged together, and the eight clans of the cities elected a chief among them, replaced only upon death. Thus Zanarkand, a city full of machina, was known as a city of summoners._

_Truthfully, calling it a city of summoners is a bit of a misnomer. Only about 30 percent of the city were a part of that class, since the 'summoning class' had not only summoners, but their families and vassal families. Not everyone from a summoning clan become a summoner, but in the same vein, only those who had a summoner within the last two generations-parent or grandparent really-could become a summoner. Anyone could learn black magic, but only summoners could receive Aeons, learn white magic, and perform sendings. As time passed, this started to bother people. Bevelle ultimately became the center for those people, along with Luca to some extent, and focused on the development of combat machina._

_This was the world I born into, over a thousand years ago._

Yuna paused here. She wished that Tidus had provided a little more information about the world before the war, since the most Yevon would say was that it was a hedonistic time where machina fulfilled the wishes of man, making them lazy. But, she realized that he probably didn't know it all, and this book was really more for his story, not a history of Spira.

_I was born in summer, to Jecht, a famous blitzer who was the star of the Zanarkand Abes, and his wife Nami. I was the younger of twins, by three minutes, as I would remind my brother Shuyin when he played the older brother card. (Tidus never mentioned having siblings…) Pretty much out of the womb, we were in our father's shadow. I swear people were comparing us to him before we could crawl, let alone know what a blitzball was. As much as we were shielded from the media hounds, something I later realized was probably Dad's doing, they couldn't be kept out entirely._

_Shuyin…I think he was affected more by being in Dad's shadow then me, since he was the firstborn. Sometimes it felt like his emotions were pressed onto me, making me feel what he felt. I don't think he was conscious of it, and no one else ever seemed to comment on it. We were always competing with the old man, and each other, for Mom's attention. In hindsight, Jecht never actively took Mom away from us, but five year olds doesn't understand why, when coming back from kindergarten, Mom seemed more interested in Dad's day then yours. She was a great mom, but we had come within my parents' first year of marriage (the trashier media would always say that the old man only married her because he got her pregnant), so I guess it was still some of that newlywed bliss._

_We were seven, when it happened. I had been playing out on the houseboat deck, and Shuyin and Mom and Dad were inside. The Abes were talking about getting rid of Dad, "trading me in for a younger model" as he would put it, when he came storming out, six pack in hand, got in the powerboat that was moored with the houseboat, and speeded off. Shuyin said he had hit Mom. Mom neither confirmed nor denied, just said he was upset with the managers and went to blow off stream. The old man had reeked of alcohol, so he was most definitely drunk, something had had happened more frequently as rumors of him being replaced grew._

_He never came back._

_Huge searches were mounted after the 24 hour waiting period before a person is officially missing had passed. This was the most popular blitzer in Spira. Even those that hated the Abes or Zanarkand in general loved him. But they found nothing._

_Some say he drowned. Others argued that a blitzer can't drown, and detractors argued back that a drunk blitzer could, as one had ten years before. A small portion said a fiend or a shark got him. Either way, the only thing they ever came across was the powerboat and empty bottles._

Yuna slipped the juice, wondering. "Jecht-san…died a thousand years ago. Had he been a dream? But I was able to send him…" Placing the glass back on the nightstand, she returned to reading.

_If there was one thing I could respect about my old man, he knew how to manage his money. Between his salary and the money he got for endorsements (letting others use his name and image to sell things in return for a percentage of the profit or a set sum), he had been pretty well off. He had set up trust funds for me and Shuyin each, an account to take care of the houseboat expenses and maintenance, and a general account. And Mom was listed on the accounts, so she could access the money even after he disappeared. She still went back to work afterwards, I think so she wouldn't sit in the house and waste away. But she was never the same._

_Time went on. While Mom could function well most of the time for our sake, other times she couldn't, namely around his birthday, their anniversary, and the anniversary of his disappearance. Shuyin was the one who would take care of her, and I would take care of him and her as much as he would let me. He felt he had to be the man of the house with Dad gone. It was really bad when the official notice declaring Jecht legally dead came when we were fourteen. After that, she seemed to be in another world sometimes, and couldn't work as often as she had before._

_We were sixteen when she finally gave up._

_I had had to stay after school that day to make up tests I had missed the week before when I was down with stomach flu (it missed Shuyin, the lucky bastard). Shuyin went home early, since he had been in a fight with three other guys that week and was suspended from playing for two months. People still couldn't realize that you do not taunt Shuyin about the old man without repercussions._

_He found Mom in a pool of blood, her wrists slit. I didn't learn this until I came home, the neighbors whispering outside, Shuyin covered in blood trying to clean up the blood pool, but some idiot from the temple, when they came for her body, mentioned that she wouldn't receive a sending._

_Suicides don't get Sent. The official reason was that since they accepted death while still alive, they did not need guidance to the Farplane. The real reason was an ancient, almost prehistoric, belief that those who take their own lives have committed an unforgivable sin against the gods, failing to preserve their life and taking what is only the gods to take. They used to bury suicides at crossroads, so their souls couldn't find their way, and drive a stake through their heart. Attitudes had changed, so suicides would now at least receive some form of proper burial, either at sea or cremation, but they would not have a sending performed._

Yuna suddenly felt bad, for she had said his mother had accepted death while alive when she had appeared during their visit to the Farplane. Then she noticed a note in the margin- _don't feel bad, you didn't know_ , and she couldn't help but smile. Tidus had known her well enough to know how she would feel about his mother's death, and comfort her, before she even read this.

Officially, she remembered, Yevon didn't say people killed themselves. It said that they atoned for the stain of the sin of machina use with their lives. But the whispers always remained.

_I think she would have killed herself two years earlier, when Dad was declared legally dead, if not for us. At fourteen we would have entered foster care and Dad's money into limbo. But at sixteen, we could be deemed fit to care for ourselves. Mostly at Shuyin's insistence, we dropped out of school, as anyone could do at sixteen, and tried out for blitzball. We might have been allowed to live on our own with our trust funds, but he didn't want to take that chance, since the courts would prefer that we are capable of supporting ourselves, and a job is a better sign of that._

_I think he just didn't want to have anything to do with the old man's money._

_We had drop the old man's name just to get a tryout, but we were judged on our skills (we had made sure of it) and made it. Me on the Abes, him with the Duggles. Shuyin didn't really care for the Duggles, but he hated the old man more and they were the Abes's rivals. I just liked the Abes more than I didn't like the old man. Not to say that we would trade places and play for the other team. All we really had to was change the part in our hair. One thing we refused to do was play against each other. Whenever the teams played against each other, we would play opposite halves of the games. The managers could never get us to budge on this point. We were all we had left, and did not want to risk it with the media comparing us should we directly play against each other._

_Not that we played each other much attention. I had gone back to school through a night school, since I wanted something to fall back on after blitzball, and Shuyin…did whatever. I'm not sure. I know he meet Lenne, an up-and-coming songstress who happened to be a summoner. He became her guardian when they started dating, and I got drafted to help him learn to use a sword. More like learn with him so he wouldn't look like an idiot. But beyond sword training, we hardly saw each other. He pretty much moved into her apartment, and I was cramming for the tests to get my high school degree and considering college courses._

_I barely noticed when the war started. But that would soon change._


End file.
